The good news is that 94 per cent of Ontarians now have a family doctor due partly to the successful efforts of both Ontaio and HealthForce Ontario Marketing and Recruitment Agency in recruiting doctors – both foreign trained and those trained in other provinces or the U.S. – over the past several years.

A majority of these international medical graduates are doctors practicing and treating patients in:

family medicine and

high-demand specialties, including

internal medicine,

psychiatry and

emergency medicine.

Thankfully, the international medical graduates are filling the void that was created when Ontario was losing more doctors than it was recruiting, prior to 2003.

The workforce of these international medical graduates in terms of numbers is significant as shown by the following statistics:

Now international medical graduates make up almost 25 per cent of the doctors who are serving Ontario families.

In 2009, Ontario gained 174 doctors from another province or country, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Ontario offers 200 training and assessment positions annually for international medical graduates – more than all other provinces combined.

There are currently more than 6,050 international medical graduates in Ontario.

HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency helps to recruit qualified health care professionals into Ontario and assist internationally educated health professionals living in Ontario to become qualified to practise in the province.